Yes, I’m well aware of TEI, it being my former field of research. However, as your link (4) shows there are all kinds of caveats, and usual epigenetic inheritan

Yes, I’m well aware of TEI, it being my former field of research. However, as your link (4) shows there are all kinds of caveats, and usual epigenetic inheritance isn’t transgenerational (in fact, it’s a ubiquitous, “mundane” biological mechanism to maintain cellular state). Your first example — agouti mouse coat colour — is essentially the only firmly established example of TEI in mammals. And, as I explained in another comment, TEI tends to attenuate over generations, and it probably functions very differently in non-mammalian organisms. To date, the existence of pervasive TEI in mammals remains a point of contention. Outside of the agouti locus there’s almost no high-quality, replicated evidence for its existence, and the hypothesis is fundamentally hindered by the lack of a plausible mechanism [1]. Most epigenetics research focuses on other things, and there’s general scepticism that TEI in mammals is all that important [2]. [1] https://www.theguardian.com/science/sifting-the-evidence/2016/mar/02/rats-epigenetics-maybe-our-great-grandmothers-arent-responsible-for-our-alcoholism-after-all https://www.theguardian.com/science/sifting-the-evidence/201... [2] https://twitter.com/ewanbirney/status/1014494822525296640 https://twitter.com/ewanbirney/status/1014494822525296640